Furniture-maker lets craftsmanship be his guide

In our progress-obsessed era, sleek and modern is the reigning aesthetic. Fortunately, people like Alf Sharp have not forgotten the virtues of simple, hand-wrought craftsmanship.

Currently the featured artist at the Gordon Jewish Community Center’s Janet Levine March Gallery, Sharp has developed a thriving career building furniture that draws heavily on 18th- and 19th-century design. Far from anachronistic, however, he also incorporates contemporary approaches to furniture-making, locating his work on a continuum that stretches from the Revolutionary era all the way to the present day.

Sharp found his calling almost through happenstance: After finishing college, he began pursuing a legal career before realizing that he found much greater satisfaction working with his hands. Over time, he built a successful business making cabinets, but he became so enmeshed in the details of running his small company that he decided to sell the business and focus on the thing he loved: making functional pieces out of wood.

In the years since, he has received numerous commissions from some of the area’s most notable historic sites and institutions, including the Tennessee State Capitol, Belle Meade Mansion and Travellers Rest. After a 1998 tornado downed trees at The Hermitage, Sharp made two pieces from the fallen wood, including a beautiful bench that sits in the Tennessee State Museum.

An active member of the local crafts community, Sharp is president of the Cumberland Furniture Guild and teaches at O’More College of Design. He has shown at the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists’ annual fair, but this exhibit represents a chance for Nashvillians to witness the scope of his skill and imagination.

The show opens with a reception 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Information from: www.tennessean.com